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Computer Crash!

sliver911sliver911 Registered User regular
edited April 2012 in Help / Advice Forum
Hey guys,

I'll start by describing the events that lead up to the loss my my baby, errr I mean, computer...

Yesterday I decided I would hook my 46inch flatscreen up to my computer to play some Tribes. It worked perfectly and I had a great time minus the bleeding retinas.
Apparently my girlfriend went on later and a black screen appeared saying "System reboot, press a button to reboot" or something scary along those lines. She rebooted the PC and everything was fine until it blacked out completely on her.

When I woke up I noticed the computer was frozen at the start up screen. I rebooted. It wouldn't go past the screen where you would normally enter BIOS. I tried to start up in Safety mode and do some diagnostics but I could no longer get back into windows. I changed my monitor back. I removed my video card and put it back. I disconnected all the wires, removed my hard drive, and put everything back. Still nothing.

Instead, I was having a hard time even getting anything to appear on the screen at all. The computer would start up without the green light sometimes. Sometimes with both green and red. Sometimes it would boot normally and get to the Windows 7 Login screen, but after logging in it would go nowhere.

I tried putting the Windows 7 CD in and repairing the drives.. But everything would freeze or restart and land me back in a nightmare. I'm not horrible with computers and I have fixed this one before. However, this seems well beyond my capacity.

What can I do? Well sometimes I can get into BIOS. Sometimes I can get into safety mode with command prompt. Thats about it.

Most of the time I have no other choice but to hit TAB or DEL to enter a "Setup" and it constantly tries to auto configure/recognize SATA 1.

Has my hard drive pooped out? Seems odd to happen out of nowhere..

If anyone has had these issues I would greatly appreciate some help. Thanks guys!

PS. Fans are all running. Lights go on. I don't think its a power supply issue. My beast sized graphics card sits on my SATA cord that connecting into the motherboard. I'm not sure if thats causing the issue. Not much I can do about it, I've tried using a spare small graphics card. BAH i dont know. help me ;(

sliver911 on

Posts

  • Count FunkulaCount Funkula Registered User regular
    You didn't mention what brand and model of PC you have (or parts if it is a home built). Things to note: which lights come on and what color they are, do they flash, do you hear any beeping, etc. All of these can help with diagnosing the problem. But, from your description, it does sound like your hard drive has indeed died. It isn't really all that strange for it to happen out of nowhere. Sometimes you will get some warning, but often you won't.

  • sliver911sliver911 Registered User regular
    Sorry mate,

    Its a home built computer with an array of different parts inside. I would have definitly provided a ton of information if I could indeed get into the system information. What I know from memory isn't very sufficient I would believe.

    Its an ASUS motherboard. Nothing grand, but nothing too old either.
    Brand new 500 w power supply
    6 year old 40 gig hard drive (probably too old and very dead)
    BFG Geforce 250 video card

    Thats all I really know from the top of my head.

    The lights are constantly changing. No blinking. Either a solid green. Or a solid green with a red one under it. Or no light at all.

    I might get a solid beep when i first turn on the computer. Or no beep at all sometimes. I think the beep is consistent with the computer starting up. Nothing out of the ordinary that would suggest anything.

    From what I keep reading it sounds like my hard drive is indeed gone. Which is fine since I only game on this computer. I just wanted to cross check with you smart chaps.

  • corky842corky842 Registered User regular
    My guess would be the hard drive as well. Have you tried booting with the drive totally unplugged? It should go through the POST and then come up with "boot device not found" or a similar-sounding error.

  • sliver911sliver911 Registered User regular
    I'll give it a try Corky, but for right now I've had enough hair pulling for the night.

    I'll let you know how it goes

  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    Try booting from a Linux disc/thumbdrive?

    If you don't have another home PC, head to work or library and d/l.

  • sliver911sliver911 Registered User regular
    Why from a linux CD?

  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    sliver911 wrote: »
    Why from a linux CD?

    To run the OS from disc so you can try to retrieve your files - if there's anything on the HDD you don't have backed up This article explains it more.

    That's assuming you can get past the POST screen, which sounds like you can sometimes.

  • sliver911sliver911 Registered User regular
    Oh, I'm not concerned about retrieving my files. I use that computer only for gaming. I just wanted to be able to for sure diagnose that it is indeed a hard drive issue.

    If that is the case I will just go buy a new Hard Drive

  • FiggyFiggy Fighter of the night man Champion of the sunRegistered User regular
    sliver911 wrote:
    Has my hard drive pooped out? Seems odd to happen out of nowhere..

    For future computer problems, this is almost always how hardware fails. Out of nowhere.

    XBL : Figment3 · SteamID : Figment
  • matt has a problemmatt has a problem Points to 'off' Points to 'on'Registered User regular
    sliver911 wrote: »
    Oh, I'm not concerned about retrieving my files. I use that computer only for gaming. I just wanted to be able to for sure diagnose that it is indeed a hard drive issue.

    If that is the case I will just go buy a new Hard Drive

    Pull the hard drive, then boot the computer. If it's the hard drive, it should boot normally past the logo/test screens, then give you a black screen with text about a boot disk error, or no drive detected. Reboot, try going into BIOS. If both of those work fine, it was the hard drive. If you still have problems, it wasn't.

    nibXTE7.png
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